Brandy, who has toured with Jennifer previously, and was featured on this year’s CMT Next Women of Country Tour with Jennifer, Lindsay Ell and Tara Thompson, co-wrote seven tracks on Jennifer’s album.

Jennifer and Brandy sat down with Nash Country Daily to talk about their friendship, touring together and writing with each other.

Jennifer: “Brandy Clark is just such a special talent. She’s all over Playing With Fire in terms of co-writes. As I like things to go within my art, that came about organically. She was with me when I toured for the record for That Girl. So we got to know each other there, both as friends and as writers. You know, she’s a fantastic writer, and what I came to know and love is the way that our sensibilities meshed together and match in terms of each of our musical influences that we both share and have in common, and those that we don’t at the same time. I think it creates a very unique sound whenever we come together. Plus, just as a writer she’s so fantastic at getting to kernels of truth and really turning a phrase that will break your heart. I loved writing with her, and she’s all over the record. It just happened organically. Some songs were started on the road, some when we were out on tour for That Girl —like ‘Drunk in Heels’—and some we wrote on a couch back at home, so they were all in different places.”

Brandy: “Jennifer is amazing. So much of my career as an artist has been because of other artists getting behind me and Jennifer was one of the first that did. The opportunity she has given me to make a fan base and make it bigger—I don’t really think you can put a price on that. When her and I were out together on the That Girl Tour, we had a lot of time and we would get together on her bus or dressing room and we would write. She’s really easy to write with. She doesn’t shut anybody down. We would tell each other ideas, like the song ‘Drunk in Heels.’ I had said to her I always wanted to write a song about the quote ‘Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did except backwards and in heels.’ I said I wanted to write a song called ‘Drunk in Heels,’ but I didn’t know what it is. She came up to me on the bus one day and she was kinda exhausted. She had her baby out there—and she’s a very hands on mother. When she’s not onstage, she’s being a mom. So she was really wiped out. And she said, ‘I know how we should write that song.’ And she just started singing Tired, tired, dog ass tired and we just wrote ‘Drunk in Heels.’ We came back to Nashville and finished it. But it was so easy with her that I didn’t realize we’d written so many songs until she went in to make her record. Jennifer really believed in me and in those songs, and her and [producer] Dan Huff did such a great job together on the album.”